Did Bell Telephone Work
Trickle Down to Help Him In the Development of His Metal Detector?

Props and
Reexamination of History for a Japanese TV
Film Project: Alexander Graham
Bell Telephone and Metal Detector. This project
concentrated on the development of a metal detector to find an assassin bullet in
president Garfield. It goes further though asking the
questions what
expertise did Bell gain from the development of the
telephone that led him to the development of metal
detectors? This new expanded TV
version of the Garfield story by a Japanese film company for the
Japanese market helps make this connection.

The Dates for the Sequence of
Construction and Experimental Eventssee ref 1

On June 2nd 1875. while working on his harmonic telegraph, in the attic of the Williams machine shop
on Court Street Boston,
Alexander Graham Bell and his
assistant Thomas A. Watson discovered they could transmit more
than a single
sound note, a timbre electrically through wires from one room to
another using iron resonant reeds driven by electromagnets. Because of Bell
expertise in sound he immediately recognized the possibility of talking
over wires and created his first design.

On the 3rd & 4th June 1875

Watson working from Bells design sketches perhaps blending in his own view
constructed the first telephone.

We built one for this project out of vintage
material to get a feeling of how well it worked.

Their design did not work
nor did ours.

Depending
on the number of turns of wire we were using on the magnet we were getting
microvolts of signal .The membrane
diaphragm and reed were not suitable plus the magnetic circuit was very poor.

Bell carried out very few experiments on
this model and they were unsuccessful from the start. Further work was
suspended for nearly a month for a variety of reasons including the
displeasure of one of his backers Mr. Hubbard who wanted results on the harmonic
telegraph to have a higher priority.

Curiously in hind site if. Bell and Watson had
used a thin iron disk in place of the
membrane and had a permanent magnet iron core in the coil they
would have had a successful working model from the
start.

It wasn't until July 1st 1875 when Watson modified the
instrument with a heavier membrane and a lighter reed that they began hearing
some semblances of voices which was further improved with the addition of
another diaphragm instrument for the receiver however the results were very marginal.
However Bell felt he could eventually make the telephone work and decided to
patent lit anyways, Fortunately for Bell and his crew in 1870 patent models
were no longer required by law.

Between July 1875and March 8th 1876 nearly 8
months Bell wrote up his patent for the telephone attended to other
patents, attended to his job as a teacher at Boston University and worked on
his quest to Marry Mabel Hubbard daughter. He was successful on
all accounts.

on March 7th 1876. He was awarded his
patent for the telephone.

On March 8th 1876. He went back to the
experiments to try and make it work.
This time He started with tuning
forks experimenting with acid pots as variable resistance transmitters.
Perhaps this was done instead of continuing with the first magneto
design
because Bell felt certain that he needed a stronger transmitter for reaching
longer distances. See the general
layout of the tuning forks device in the figures and diagram below.

June 25 1876 Philadelphia
Centennial Exhibition the judging of the Telephone:
Single-pole transmitter,
the iron box receivers p169 ref 1 Koenig Manometrc capsule electric capsule
was fitted with an electromagnetically vibrated diaphragm to show , by the
dancing flame and revolving mirror how an adulatory electric current might
be visually observed

Thomas Edison finally worked out a successful variable
resistance microphone using
carbon as the sound pressure resistive sensitive element.

Think about the prospective of
money backers of such a project. There was no appreciation of the strong
acceptance that public would have for keeping in touch with his fellow
man and woman. Western Union refused to by Bell company at a ridiculously low
price which in few years grew to hundreds of times the initial selling
price.

In fact had their been a cell phone 60 years ago the cell phone
would have appeared in the stores much sooner than they did and by now who
knows where we might be in the communication arena

Different cultures, different languages, a common goal

Below are pictures of the Japanese film crew working together on the set. Here is
the producer, director, and young Bell working out the details of the
metal detector for one of the laboratory scenes.
Below is the Scientific advisor showing the technical
details of the apparatus to the crew in the developing a shooting
plan for the next scene.

It was celebrating the 1951
meeting of the Telephone Pioneers of America in Louisville, Kentucky

Bell realized that he needed to achieve good working distance for a
practical telephone and to achieve it he needed to have an externally
powered system. Below is one version he tried for a variable resistance microphone using an acid puddle.

Historical
Instruments of Science, Technology and Inventionand what they tell us about the future.

The Alexander Graham Bell story of invention and
scientific discovery: how it gets done, how it ultimately gets
to the customer, how business manipulates the use and availability of
those inventions or discoveries, and who gets the reward both in
money and recognition is all very much the same today as it was in Bells
time.

There are important lessons to be learned from this story. Lessons
which are important to us today in every part of our daily living.
The Patents and discoveries of today in food production new
medicines, communications ( the internet) affect all of us profoundly.

Civilizations rise and fall because of technical progress It's important
for all of us to understand and make sure that our political
representatives and businessmen understand this and demand that we
get our fair share of the rewards from these inventions and discoveries.

With careless management these resources can be used against us.
Millions of jobs move almost over night from one country to another
because of technical progress. Tens of thousands of atomic weapons
are just waiting to be used because of technical progress. Thus far all of
this progress for the most part has been used to make the world a better
and safer place to live in Many of us are living longer and enjoying
ourselves more than in Bell's time.

We cant stop technical progress its in
our genes. So we have to be on our toes and continue to use them wisely.
After all Bell and his telephone and Sam Morse and his telegraph were not
very clever in the science and engineering needed to invent the telephone
and telegraph but look what they started and how it has change
everyone lives.